As President Xi delivered his opening address to the 19th Communist Party Congress in Beijing, 2,280 delegates looked on. But fewer than a quarter of those were women.
People seem to be asking whether the party should take gender equality more seriously. The New York Times wrote of women being "shut out" - but does the Chinese Communist Party have a woman problem?
Of the 89.4 million members of the Chinese Communist Party, just under 23 million are women - that's 26%.
And women make up 24% of China's National Congress - the sprawling national parliament. You don't have to be a Communist Party member to sit on that.
Women are less represented the higher up the political tree you climb.
After the last Congress in 2012, only 33 women sat on the Central Committee which elects the powerful Politburo - that's 9%.
Only two of the 25 members of that Politburo were women - 8%.
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It's evidently difficult for Chinese women to break through the political glass ceiling. That's despite the government's stated commitment to gender equality, and despite the fact that more women than men are entering university in China.
What's holding them back?
Women usually join the party at university or when they join the workforce as a way of advancing their careers.
However, promotion beyond county and township level is especially difficult.
"The long-standing perception that women's place belongs at home and in the kitchen mean they are not meant to be ambitious," explains Professor Lynette H. Ong, Professor of Political Science at University of Toronto.
"Their societal role is to be caregivers to the husbands, children and grandchildren.
"Even though Mao once famously said, 'Women hold up half the sky', women still have a long way to go in their fights for equal representation.
AFP
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